Gabriel Lamé

Gabriel Lamé was a French mathematician who lived from 1795 to 1870 and was born in Tours. He contributed to the theory of partial differential equations through the use of curvilinear coordinates, which he used to transform Laplace's equation into ellipsoidal coordinates and so separate its variables, and he made substantial contributions to the mathematical theory of elasticity. He studied the family of curves now called Lamé curves or superellipses, and the Lamé functions belong to the theory of ellipsoidal harmonics. In 1844 he analysed the running time of the Euclidean algorithm using Fibonacci numbers, an early step in computational complexity theory, and he proved a special case of Fermat's Last Theorem, though he mistakenly believed he had a complete proof. Engineering problems such as vaults, suspension bridges and press-fit joints led him to many of these questions. He was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1854.